Ideal Crazy Clock board game

The Ideal Crazy Clock board game is a vintage game produced during the 1960s by the U.S toy company Ideal.

Background

In 1963 Ideal released the board game Mousetrap, which featured a large board and a complex plastic mechanism which would be built by the players, before being activated. The design of the mousetrap was inspired by the work of the American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who was famous for his drawing of elaborate and unusual home-made contraptions.

It was created by the game designer Marvin Glass, who acknowledged the inspiration of Goldberg but refused to pay the artist any royalties for the design.

The success of the game led the company to create more games along a similar theme, and the first was ‘Crazy Clock’, released in 1964 (followed by Fish Bait in 1965). Although both popular, neither was as successful as Mousetrap, which remains in production today.

The Ideal Crazy Clock game

The purpose of the game was to build the mechanical device out of the different parts by drawing cards from a deck. Each card had a different part of the machine, and players would continue until their card featured a part that as out of sequence (at which point the next player would take their turn).

The winner of the game is the player to complete the machine and activate it, waking up a sleeping figure in bed through a series of moving pieces and marbles.

How much is an Ideal Crazy Clock game worth?

Crazy Clock is sought after by games collectors, due to its innovative design and playing pieces. However, due to the large number of parts required to build the mechanism it can be difficult to find a version complete with all its components.

Complete examples in good – mint condition can often sell for between $50 - $100 on auction sites such as eBay, with prices occasionally rising up to $200 depending on condition.